Monday, 17 December 2012

This blog entry is sponsored and paid for by PEMANDU, the Performance Management And Delivery Unit, an agency under the Prime Minister's Department of Malaysia. Although sponsored and tagged with an "ADV", all opinion expressed in this entry is of my own.

I recognize some people who read this blog may be supportive of the government of the day, and some may support the opposition. Let me just say that this blog entry endorses neither. This entry is simply a collection of thoughts of what Malaysia was like before, what direction our country is moving into and what our country will become in the year 2020.

As citizens of Malaysia, we sometimes can be very critical of our own country. Yes, we love the food, the shopping, the culture and the low costs of living in Malaysia. But the biggest gripe in our country by far, is our low income.

I know this first-hand.

7 years ago, when I moved back from Perth to Kuching, I took a HUGE salary pay cut of up to 70%. In fact, my salary was so low, I was earning salary lower than a bus driver from China working in Singapore.

It didn't used to be like this before.

Between the 1960s and 80s, Malaysia was a strong developing country on par with countries like Singapore and Japan.

My late father often told me the story of Singapore rise to prominence.

30 years ago, Singapore was just a fishing village no richer than Malaysia. Now, they are leaps and bounds ahead of us in income, to the point that Singapore now has the most number of millionaires per capita and the third richest country in the world.

Meanwhile, an IT Manager in Kuching is earning less than a fresh graduate in Australia.

How did we slip so bad? I think you know, I know.

But is it too late to make amends? Is it too late to become a high-income nation? Is it too late for Malaysia achieve developed country status by year 2020 as Mahathir envisioned?

i have no doubts PEMANDU is working in the right directions with your fellow sarawakian idris jala leading it. however, i am even more certain, the implementations will be rigged with excessive corruption for example the MRT project which you mentioned was awarded to a crony of najib - this company even failed the technical and commercial specifications of the tender! they have no experience in public transport, let alone train projects putting our lives at risk as well as bumping up the cost over 100% what singapore and china paid for similar MRT system per km... we need change!

One serious problem that the government never acknowledged is the serious corruption by law makers leaded by the Ministers themselves. If this problem is not tackled, Malaysia will lag behind Vietnam ad probably Myanmar in 2020. Malaysia under the present government is heading where South Africa under President Zuma is heading now. The final destination is another few Zimbabwe.

The government can start by weeding out the corrupt and parasites inside the government, including high officials and their family members. These are the people that are weighing us all down with their irresponsible greed. Only when we have a truly transparent government, we can start seeing some real growth and restore the confidence of foreign investors. Politicians need to be for the people and need to stand behind the people. They should be the least important in the entire society and needs to be held accountable for their actions if we are to have any hopes of achieving the now increasingly elusive 2020 vision.

It's utter rubbish when you say "all opinion expressed in this entry is of my own". We the companies who pay you bloggers to blog about us are given the right to go thorough your post before you publish it. We have the right to demand that you change certain unfavourable sentences or things we don't like so don't BS and talk as though this entry is non-partisan. You should have just done your own research instead of being paid to talk about one.

What is your ad trying to sell? If it's about our history, you didn't seem to answer the question of how we got to where we are currently. Why don't you enlighten your readers on what *you know* because clearly I'm interested.

If it's about PEMANDU's efforts to implement the ETP, I think we need something more substantial than just a paid advertisement introducing an "online personality test site". What are they trying to achieve here? Telling me that I'm "the Perfector", with a potential to be the "King's royal architect" among other things seems rather comical. If they're selling optimism, I'm not buying it.

With the overt emphasis on KL, the site could just as easily be the love child of Tourism Malaysia as opposed to a public engagement campaign by PEMANDU. Public outreach is good but only if it comes with a focussed selling point. In this case, PEMANDU is being an unwarranted big spender with my tax money.

Having said all of the above, my biggest issue is with the myopic nature of 'Citizen 2020'. When I last checked, Malaysia consists of 13 states and 3 federal territories. What exactly is being done for the rest of us, not living in KL or Klang Valley?

The income-cost of living disparity for most Malaysians, especially those in Sabah and Sarawak, are getting larger by day and this is something PEMANDU has failed to address. The world doesn't revolve around Peninsular Malaysia and the lack of equal growth opportunity is certainly a cause of frustration for many of us.

I know you're not at fault for giving PEMANDU a platform to sell their message but I hope you understand that a superficial programme like 'Citizen 2020' is bound to irritate people who can see beyond the sugar-coated nonsense. I don't mind seeing product placement, but this is a rather dodgy item.

Is there anything for Sabah and Sarawak? I lives in kuching and all i wish for by 2020 is a good road (not a highway that cost billions to built but just a good and smooth dual carriage road) linking major cities in Sarawak like kuching to Sibu to Bintulu to Miri. Is this too much to ask for by 2020 or 20202 maybe?

Kenny wtf man? Have u not been earning enough to be able to CHOOSE what u wanna post on ur blog? How much did PEMANDU paid u to post this entry? I think all of us here would like to know..having followed ur blog for so long..